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Mini Review: THE LAST WISH + SWORD OF DESTINY by Andrzej Sapkowski

I haven’t actually played The Witcher games. I jumped into reading this series knowing pretty much nothing about the world and its characters. The only thing I really knew was that the main character’s name was Geralt, and that was pretty much it. I do have to say it’s been a fun ride, though. I read the translation from Polish to Brazilian Portuguese, which was a nice adventure in and of itself.

THE LAST WISH
Andrzej Sapkowski

Geralt was always going to stand out, with his white hair and piercing eyes, his cynicism and lack of respect for authority … but he is far more than a striking-looking man. He’s a witcher, with powers that make him a brilliant fighter and a merciless assassin – his targets are the vile fiends that ravage the land.

As guardian of the innocent, Geralt meets incestuous kings with undead daughters, vengeful djinns, shrieking harpies, lovelorn vampires and despondent ghouls. Many are pernicious, some are merely, and none are quite as they appear.

The Last Wish is a collection of seven short stories about Geralt of Rivia, a witcher. If you’ve played the games, you’re already familiar with him and some (all?) of the other characters that appear along the way.

Some of the stories are more to my taste than others, but overall I really enjoyed this collection. The fantasy world and the little bits of Slavic mythology really make this a great read, as well as the characters, who each are developed and have their own background. This very much feels like 7 different adventures packed into a book, and I had a lot of fun going through them.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

SWORD OF DESTINY
Andrzej Sapkowski

Geralt is a witcher, a man whose magic powers, enhanced by long training and a mysterious elixir, have made him a brilliant fighter and a merciless assassin. Yet he is no ordinary murderer: his targets are the multifarious monsters and vile fiends that ravage the land and attack the innocent. He roams the country seeking assignments, but gradually comes to realise that while some of his quarry are unremittingly vile, vicious grotesques, others are the victims of sin, evil or simple naivety.

In this collection of short stories, following the adventures of the hit collection The Last Wish, join Geralt as he battles monsters, demons and prejudices alike…

Sword of Destiny is the second collection of six short stories in The Witcher series. Although I haven’t played the game, I researched a little about it, and it’s clear that this book introduces some characters that are pretty important to the story-line later on. It also expands a little on the world-building, as well as tells us more about the mythology and the world Sapkowski created.

In a sense, these stories are darker than the ones in The Last Wish. That makes it a little difficult to get through them, as the pace sometimes drags on. But I still had a lot of fun reading this collection, especially when they brought back characters from the first installment. Sword of Destiny also made me really curious about what is going to happen in the full-length novels, as it seems to explain and be a bridge to the next book: Blood of Elves.